Ok more measurements.

My old 1 hp pump has been replaced by one that uses 42 watts continuous. Thats 1.008 kwh/day or 30 kwh/month which is $1.86/month that should save me about $28/month for a 4.5 month payback time.

I've also measured my whole house cooling system which consists of some open windows and a big box fan. On high it sucks down 155 watts on low it sucks down 92 watts. I use it on high about 3 hours a night so thats 2.8 cents/day or $0.84/month.

I went to dig up my last electricity bill to see what sort of KWH per month usage we had as a _starting_ point for energy conservation. Our monthly electricity usage from February to May was 80 KWH per month. That is not a typo.

It's a 2-bedroom flat, traditional Edinburgh tenement, half in he basement (ie underground on one side, but not on the other due to hill), heating and hot water are gased-fired. Cooker and hob are electric. We never use the oven though, not for energy conservation, it's just not part of our eating/cooking habits.

Gas usage is c. 10 UK pounds a month, even in February, as one hour of heating in the morning and one at night is sufficient. An additional hour or two at weekends perhaps. We're also not big hot water guzzlers as long showers are not our thing.

The next step is reduce that 80 KWH and 10 UK pounds gas bill (I have the meter readings for the gas so I can use those "units" as a rule of thumb - I have access to the gas meter to read it obviously).

First step: all lightbulbs to be replaced with energy efficient models when they blow. I keep a stock of spares for lightbulbs anyway as they _always_ blow when the shops are shut!

Defrost the freezer and fridge and look at putting foil on the back is next!

Foil on the back???
-A

see an earlier thread by, I think, babypeanut - re improving fridge energy efficiency.

I posted this one awhile ago

http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic9368.html


80 KWH/month is impressively low usage. even with the changes I've made to become more efficient I'm expecting to use 6 or 7 times that much. I'm guessing it's your use of gas that keeps your usage so low?

I guess yes - hot water and heating come from a gas-fired combi boiler (pressurised system, hot water on demand, European-style setup).

We don't use the electric oven (due to our eating habits, not a conscious decision - for reheating we use the microwave) - no TV (stereo system instead), water comes from mains (unfortunately nowhere to collect rainwater).

Gas usage is at c. 15 dollars a month, in the middle of winter. We do have a gas meter though so I am going to concentrate on lowering the monthly "unit" count by keeping track of the meter. I consider it normal to wear a sweater and slippers indoors in wintertime, so we don't have the heating on that much. We made it a "game" over the past few years to use it as little as possible, not because we were short of money but switching it on at weekends meant getting out of bed! So we discovered it wasn't necessary util we actually got up, for example!

Remember that Scotland does not get overly hot, cold or humid by US standards. Heating is needed in winter but even totally without we would not freeze. a/c is not needed. SO the climate is nice to us.

I stress that none of this is due to "virtuous energy conservation" on our part - I'm just pleasantly surprised. And realise how much of a power-guzzler a tv must be!

I second the "Foil on the Back" question...
Trap the heat in the coils so they dont cool as fast? If anything I would think a fan blowing over the back would be more likely to give a net improvement...

Unless the foil is supposed to provide a greater surface area for heat to disapate over... but that sounds fishy to me.
BTW Tinfoil makes far better hats to block out the mind control rays...

the foil is insulating foil like those water heater insulating jackets. It comes in rolls about 2 feet wide by 15 feet long. Sort of like this stuff: http://tinyurl.com/8ju98

What you do is pull the coils out away from the back of the fridge a couple of inches. You then put the foil between the coils and the fridge, you want the heat from the coils to not get into the fridge. The foil is held in place with ducttape.

I also spaced the top of the coils out a couple of inches more then the bottom, this helps prevent the heat from rising from the bottom and warming the top coils as it goes up. yes putting the bottom out further then the top would be better but there was no flexibility down there to do it.

The goal is entirely about getting heat out of those coils and not putting it back into the fridge. Yes a fan would be even better but that requires power to run and I didn't happen to have one kicking around.

Thank you for the explination. That makes alot more sence.

I recently moved from an apartment to a small house. The house has a gas hot-water heater, heating, and a gas stove. Gas use is about $7 / month, which seems reasonable for my minimal usage (in the apartment, heat for hot water was included in the rent - I don't use much hot water because I shower at the gym every morning). The electric bill is a bit of a shock, though (no pun intended). It's $40, which is about 2x what I was paying in the apartment. So, how can this be?

Let's start will all my moveable appliances, the TV, computer, stereo, etc. These are all the same as in the apartment, and I use them about the same, too. Their standby power drain should be exactly the same.

Regarding major appliances, the house has a washer/dryer which I use about 1/week. These are brand-new and should be energy efficient. The apartment had older models for these appliances, again the usage was 1/week. Doesn't seem like they'd be a big drain but who knows. Dishwasher I also use 1/week, just as before, and again, it's newer than the one in the apartment. Refrigerator is larger and about 10 years old; the one in the apartment was maybe 20 years old. So, it's a possible culprit but how can I know?

Regarding incidental use such as lighting, well I rely on natural sunlight during the day and/or I like to go outside to read and such. At night, I pretty much leave things dark except for one room where a lamp with a 60-watt bulb runs during the evening hours. This is about the same as my habits at the apartment. On the rare occassions when I read at night there is a 300-watt lamp, again the same as I had in the apartment.

The kitchen as noted has a gas stove, instead of electric, so this should reduce my electricity usage. (Although I use the microwave a lot, but it's the exact same one I had in the apartment.)

There are obviously other things using electricity in the house, e.g. circuits associated with the water heater, smoke detectors, and such, but these would not seem to be big power hogs.

I have air conditioning in the new house, which I did not have in the apartment. However, I almost never use it. It was used maybe 12 hours in the last month. I suppose that could be the culprit, although I shudder to think what the power bill might be if I ran it every day, and I can't believe people in places like LA are paying $1000/month to air-condition their homes. So, this seems an unlikely culprit.

So, where's the electricity going? Can anyone tell me how I would go about checking things like the fridge? Right now I'm at about 1/3 baseline for gas, which makes sense given my frugal energy habits, but I'm about 99% of baseline for electricity, which makes no sense to me. Help!

I'm at a loss to explain the increase. Your newer fridge should most likely
be using less rather than more energy than the older one. This page has
a link to refrigerator usage database(the model number is usually at the
bottom of the front after you open the door).

http://www.homeenergy.org/consumerinfo/ ... rticle.htm

There are electrical units you can plug into the wall, then the appliance
that will measure the actual amount used. About $30-$40.

Perhaps some of your appliances had a standby mode, which was off while
you were in the apartment but which you inadvertently activated once you
moved. However, I can't imagine that would be anything like $20 more.

You said the cost doubled, but not the usage. Have you compared the price
per kilowatt?

My vote is for the AC. Is it a older unit? What is the SEER rating?

Dryers use a lot of power too. I'd say that it's a combo between the fridge, the a/c, and the clothes dryer.

If you have an electric dryer and A/C that could do it... One other thing to consider is that the billing rate for a residence might include some sort of base fee (you know just for the privelege of being hooked up to them) - kind of like a monthly fee for having the hookup before even getting charged. I think PNM here has something like that - like you could use no power and still get a bill of $9.95 or somesuch. You might also be taxed differently. examine your bill...

-G

My electric bill is broken down into generation charges and delivery charges. I would take a look at that, especially if you have an old bill to compare it to. It may be possible that the delivery charges at the apartment building were shared between multiple units (because there's only one line presumably coming into the building). With the house, however, you bear the cost of delivery alone.

For those who don't know, generation costs are the cost of the electricity itself. Delivery charges are the cost of infrastructure and maintenance of that infrastructure for bringing that electricity to your building.